The Shadowcat's Companions
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: When Lockheed is targeted by a hunter, does Kitty have enough time to save her best friend? Follows Dreams Change and In Search of Wisdom.


Title: "The Shadowcat's Companions"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Rating: PG-13  
Spoilers: Pete Wisdom's fate; small spoilers for Kitty's past; and the author's "Dreams Change" and "In Search of Wisdom"  
Summary: When Lockheed is targeted by a hunter, does Kitty have enough time to save her best friend? Follows "Dreams Change" and "In Search of Wisdom".  
Disclaimer: Katheryne "Kitty" "Shadowcat" Pryde; Pete Wisdom; Lockheed; Piotr Rasputain; and the X-Men are © & TM Marvel comics and are used without permission. Everything else is © & TM Pirate Turner. The author makes absolutely no profit from this story.

Fallen leaves crunched under booted feet as the woman walked through the forest, her head bowed and her hands shoved deep inside her leather jacket's pockets. A dragon flew nearby, and from above, he watched his mistress with a deeply concerned gaze. He knew how heavy her heart was for he felt her pain as if it were his own. He dropped down nearer to her as he cooed softly, "Kitty?"

Kitty shook her head, knowing that he was offering to listen to her problems but not wanting to talk about them. They both knew what had filled her heart with so much grief just as surely as they knew that there was nothing that could be done about it. For the thousandth time, Kitty Pryde asked herself the one question that had continued pounding relentlessly at her skull after she had learned, for a second time, that the man she still loved despite everything that had went wrong in their relationship was dead: Why? Why had he managed to surface just long enough to send her the E-mail that had saved her life by setting her back on the only path that she truly belonged on only to be taken from her again? What had he been running from? Who had been after him? Who had killed him?

Inside her pockets, her hidden hands balled into fists so tightly that her fingernails cut her palms, causing small trickles of blood. Shaking her head, she stopped trying to walk and instead turned to lean against a tree. Her head bowed, and tears again fled down her cheeks. She still could not believe what had happened. She had finally managed to accept that Pete was gone mere months before his E-mail had given her such hope yet that hope had been dashed so quickly that the swiftness had caused the knife in her heart to twist even deeper. Her shoulders shook with her silent sobs. "Why, Pete, why? Piotr had already left me of his own will. Why'd you have to go and leave me, too?" Even though they had split long before his death, she had still felt him in her heart and soul, still known that he was alive and that she might meet him again one day. Now, however, all that hope was gone, and all she had left in her heart was a blinding ache that seared through to the deepest parts of her soul.

Lockheed's heart grieved for Wisdom, as well, though he'd never admit it, but what hurt the little dragon most of all was to see his beloved Kitty in such a shape and know that there was nothing that he could do to ease her pain. Since she'd learned that Wisdom was indeed truly gone forever, he had tried every antic and method to cheer her that he could think of, and absolutely nothing had worked. Now, he began to soar closer down to her, meaning to perch on her shoulder and hug her head in order to grant his best friend what little reassurance he had to offer, but froze when he heard a click. His head snapped up, and his eyes widened in horror at the form of the bearded man with the shotgun. "Kitty!" he cried out, terror clutching his heart so tightly that he could barely get her name out, as he realized that the shotgun was pointed directly at him.

Just as Lockheed had called to her, a gunshot had gone off, sounding far too close for comfort. Kitty's head snapped instantly to attention, and her haunted, tear-filled eyes widened in horror at the bullet that sped towards her best friend. Leaping into the air, she managed to grab Lockheed. The very second she touched him, she phased them both just in time for the bullet to soar right through Lockheed. Had she hesitated for only one heartbeat more, she would have lost the living being that she loved more than any other.

Kitty's eyes, blazing with red-hot fury, snapped back to the hunter as she railed at him, "YOU BASTARD!" She had just been about to tell Lockheed to hide while she dealt with him when her eyes witnessed the most startling events she had ever seen. From out of thin air, hot knives appeared, slicing through the hunter's arm and hand and causing him to drop his shotgun. The gun then lifted into the air as if of its own accord, and the three on-lookers' eyes widened even more in shock as the metal bent in upon itself, twisting together like a pretzel. The hunter's scream echoed through the forest as he turned, his skin already chalk white, but as he fled for his life, hot knives cut right across his butt.

Unable to believe her own eyes, Kitty ripped her gaze from where the gun now lay, having been tossed back down to the ground by the same unseen force that had lifted and twisted it, to look up at Lockheed. "Did you see that?" He nodded gravely, his own eyes as wide as hers. "Are you all right?" she then asked, the deepest concern lacing her voice. Lockheed nodded again.

"Keep safe," Kitty warned him, "and stay right next to me." Lockheed nodded his consent to her order, and then they began to move as one toward the area where the events they had just watched had unfolded. They slid soundlessly over the ground, both remaining ready for another attack should one come, but nothing happened even as they reached the gun. Kitty quickly scanned the area but could see no sign of footprints or any other disturbance except for the hunter's. She scooped up the gun and held it carefully in her hands as she examined it. She had seen a gun twisted like this before. Her brow furrowed. It couldn't be!

Kitty sensed movement suddenly, and her eyes swiftly swept the area only to find nothing. Still feeling an unknown presence, she lifted one hand up towards Lockheed and, upon touching his wing, phased them both again. It was at that same moment that a freezing wind cut through the leaves of the trees that surrounded them, but with that wind came two familiar voices. They spoke at the same time, their words identical except for one word. "We love you . . . " Here one called her "Katya" while the other spoke only "Pryde". "Don't ever forget that you're never alone."

As the wind and the voices silenced, Kitty could still sense their presence, and somehow she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she was not imagining things. At once, their love again filled the horrible emptiness and ache in her heart, and she knew that, though they were no longer alive, they were still with her. Solidifying once more, Kitty sank to her knees on the ground, her sobs of relief, gratitude, some sadness and grief that still remained, and a strange happiness unlike any she'd ever felt before raking her body. Lockheed perched onto her shoulder, wrapping himself gently around her head as he cooed softly in her ear. Kitty sensed Pete and Piotr on either side of her, wordlessly reaching out to her though she could not feel or see them.

**The End**


End file.
